The Long Slog: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Nomination

Stump Connolly, chief political correspondent of The Week Behind, is at it again following along the 2008 presidential campaign trail with an irreverent eye toward what makes the politicians tick. Here are first hand accounts along the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Indiana, plus the story behind the story of Hillary's tears, Obama's rallies, "live bloggers," YouTube debates, the air war vs. the ground game, and the silently-brokered deal that ultimately gave Obama the nomination. "The candidates run and we run along, trying to make sense of what they do and say," he writes. "We talk to whoever comes across our radar. We read each other voraciously to see what the others have that we do not. We guess. We conjecture on what will happen. And we pontificate on why it didn't."